Does banking calories include exercise?

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So I am trying to save my calories for the weekend, and I eat back the calories I burn, for instance I eat 1500 but I burned 300. My sedentary tdee is 1460, so here's the math I guess lol
Weekdays eat 1500- 300 work out burned calories = 1200
1460-1200=260
260x7= 1820 extra calories for the weekend
Am I doing this right or am I going to gain?
Thank you for your help!

Replies

  • karmac0matic
    karmac0matic Posts: 285
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    i wouldn't put that many extra calories in a few days... it's unhealthy to yo-yo like that. most i would do is maybe 500 add'tl calories per day of the weekend if you need to. why do you want to save your calories for the weekend/eat almost an additional 2000 calories? do you drink/party/go out to eat/etc?

    just curious. your body will be very confused with what you're attempting to do if you spend each week eating a regular amount and then go over on the weekends... i dunno.
  • aniazawadzki
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    i wouldn't put that many extra calories in a few days... it's unhealthy to yo-yo like that. most i would do is maybe 500 add'tl calories per day of the weekend if you need to. why do you want to save your calories for the weekend/eat almost an additional 2000 calories? do you drink/party/go out to eat/etc?

    just curious. your body will be very confused with what you're attempting to do if you spend each week eating a regular amount and then go over on the weekends... i dunno.

    I work through the weekdays but on weekends I have free time with my hubby and he likes to go out so I don't want to go over the calorie intake for the week, what happens when so much is consumed over the weekend? Would that cause weight gain even though the week equals to weight maintanence?
  • Shuuma
    Shuuma Posts: 465 Member
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    I'm not convinced our bodies understand the "banking" concept. Personally, I'd just eat well every day and have longer workouts on the weekends when you feel like splurging a bit. That way you're always in your calorie goal, but it feels like a great treat, too.
  • AJOjr
    AJOjr Posts: 24 Member
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    I bank calories for the weekend and have maintained for over 10 months. Keep an eye on the scale and if you start to increase in weight add additional exercise or reduce food. I eat around 1800 calories Sunday through Thursday and don't log on Friday or Saturday.
  • jlahorn
    jlahorn Posts: 377 Member
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    why do you want to save your calories for the weekend/eat almost an additional 2000 calories? do you drink/party/go out to eat/etc?

    I am not the OP, but this isn't too far off of what I do periodically. One good cheeseburger + fries + 2 or 3 good beers is about 2,000 calories. And man, is that a great break from the usual round of maintenance meals :)
  • Rianne90
    Rianne90 Posts: 229 Member
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    It sounds like it could work. Your body doesn't work with weight loss on a day-to-day basis, so eating a bit less during the week and a bit more during the weekend shouldn't be a problem, as long as your totals remain the same over the week. Only thing to keep in mind, depending on what extra snacks/drinks you have on the weekend, there might be some water weight on monday but that should sort itself out pretty quickly after a couple of days on your normal diet :)
  • DrJenO
    DrJenO Posts: 404 Member
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    I'm doing that exact thing, only I'm still in weight loss mode. There's no reason it couldn't work for someone in maintenance.

    Sometimes the scale Monday or Tuesday might be up a pound or two, but it comes right back off, and so I attribute it to water retention.

    My intake varies between 1700-2500 per day, sometimes more if I've really hit the exercise.
  • aniazawadzki
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    Lol so many different view points! Thank you all for your suggestions it won't hurt to try right? :D
  • einzweidrei
    einzweidrei Posts: 381 Member
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    I will answer from the point of view from someone who ACTUALLY does it, rather than the conjecture here from people who don't know anything about it or have never done it. (BTW - I do this successfully and I have been maintaining since December.) People seem to not understand that you can just as easily count calories weekly rather than daily, which is essentially what I do.

    Being a lightly active female, my daily maintenance allowance is 2,000 calories. I actually upped it from where MFP originally put me. I do NOT actively work out---most of my exercise consists of walking.

    Because I love to eat and I want to be able to go out and eat whatever-the-heck I want at least one day I week, I can easily do something like this:

    M-2,000
    T-600 (I am a 5:2-->6:1'er.)
    W-1900
    Th-2000
    F-2000
    S-3500
    S-2000

    I will say that I usually eat back exercise calories that day, but the idea is still the same.

    Your body doesn't get "confused" at all. Your body is not like your brain where it gets muddled. It's basic math---no confusion necessary. Good luck. I have found that after losing the weight, doing this has been the easiest way to maintain for me.
  • karmac0matic
    karmac0matic Posts: 285
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    I will answer from the point of view from someone who ACTUALLY does it, rather than the conjecture here from people who don't know anything about it or have never done it. (BTW - I do this successfully and I have been maintaining since December.) People seem to not understand that you can just as easily count calories weekly rather than daily, which is essentially what I do.

    Being a lightly active female, my daily maintenance allowance is 2,000 calories. I actually upped it from where MFP originally put me. I do NOT actively work out---most of my exercise consists of walking.

    Because I love to eat and I want to be able to go out and eat whatever-the-heck I want at least one day I week, I can easily do something like this:

    M-2,000
    T-600 (I am a 5:2-->6:1'er.)
    W-1900
    Th-2000
    F-2000
    S-3500
    S-2000

    I will say that I usually eat back exercise calories that day, but the idea is still the same.

    Your body doesn't get "confused" at all. Your body is not like your brain where it gets muddled. It's basic math---no confusion necessary. Good luck. I have found that after losing the weight, doing this has been the easiest way to maintain for me.

    It's funny that you say your body doesn't get confused. you can REALLY mess up your metabolism by overdoing it certain days. been there, done that.
  • Sreneesa
    Sreneesa Posts: 1,170 Member
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    You will be fine. Think of it as weekly calories.

    Most days I eat under and if if i want to splurge 1 or 2 days I can. Just dont go 3500 over maintenance and you won't gain a pound.
  • aniazawadzki
    Options
    I will answer from the point of view from someone who ACTUALLY does it, rather than the conjecture here from people who don't know anything about it or have never done it. (BTW - I do this successfully and I have been maintaining since December.) People seem to not understand that you can just as easily count calories weekly rather than daily, which is essentially what I do.

    Being a lightly active female, my daily maintenance allowance is 2,000 calories. I actually upped it from where MFP originally put me. I do NOT actively work out---most of my exercise consists of walking.

    Because I love to eat and I want to be able to go out and eat whatever-the-heck I want at least one day I week, I can easily do something like this:

    M-2,000
    T-600 (I am a 5:2-->6:1'er.)
    W-1900
    Th-2000
    F-2000
    S-3500
    S-2000

    I will say that I usually eat back exercise calories that day, but the idea is still the same.

    Your body doesn't get "confused" at all. Your body is not like your brain where it gets muddled. It's basic math---no confusion necessary. Good luck. I have found that after losing the weight, doing this has been the easiest way to maintain for me.

    It's funny that you say your body doesn't get confused. you can REALLY mess up your metabolism by overdoing it certain days. been there, done that.

    I heard that having big meals once a week boosts metabolism is that a myth?
  • bellevie86
    bellevie86 Posts: 301 Member
    Options
    I will answer from the point of view from someone who ACTUALLY does it, rather than the conjecture here from people who don't know anything about it or have never done it. (BTW - I do this successfully and I have been maintaining since December.) People seem to not understand that you can just as easily count calories weekly rather than daily, which is essentially what I do.

    Being a lightly active female, my daily maintenance allowance is 2,000 calories. I actually upped it from where MFP originally put me. I do NOT actively work out---most of my exercise consists of walking.

    Because I love to eat and I want to be able to go out and eat whatever-the-heck I want at least one day I week, I can easily do something like this:

    M-2,000
    T-600 (I am a 5:2-->6:1'er.)
    W-1900
    Th-2000
    F-2000
    S-3500
    S-2000

    I will say that I usually eat back exercise calories that day, but the idea is still the same.

    Your body doesn't get "confused" at all. Your body is not like your brain where it gets muddled. It's basic math---no confusion necessary. Good luck. I have found that after losing the weight, doing this has been the easiest way to maintain for me.

    It's funny that you say your body doesn't get confused. you can REALLY mess up your metabolism by overdoing it certain days. been there, done that.

    No. No. No.

    You will be fine. There are MANY people on here that do that and are successful. Also IF people on here of all sorts. They are still successful.

    THAT BEING SAID, keep an eye out for temporary weight gain in the form of water weight due to eating high sodium foods and drinks on the weekend.

    Thinking of it weekly works just fine.

    Edited to add: IF= intermittent fasting
  • einzweidrei
    einzweidrei Posts: 381 Member
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    It's funny that you say your body doesn't get confused. you can REALLY mess up your metabolism by overdoing it certain days. been there, done that.

    Nope. Nope. Nope. That's not true. At all. You can base your numbers off of weekly calories and that's fine. You were probably overdoing it on more than one or two days a week, which is why it didn't work for you. Or maybe you were really underdoing it before when you were trying to lose weight. I don't know but you will find plenty of people on this site who maintain this way.

    Like I said, I've been maintaining since December on (now) 2,000 calories/day without working out. I've slowly upped my calories over time. No weight gain. I've been having 3-5K calories days at least once a week every week BEFORE I started maintaining. Sometimes more. No weight gain. Any type of exercise I do, even if I'm just strolling outside, I log it and eat back those calories.

    You don't even have to eat well. It's all a numbers game at the end of the day. Yesterday, after dinner, my husband and I wanted a beer. We walked thirty minutes to get to a bar we love, ordered a beer, decided to order waffle fries with cheese and a hot dog with cheese and bacon to share and then each ordered a second beer. Then we did the thirty minute walk home. It was delicious and worth it but now I will eat a little less today because I went a little crazy yesterday. Life is good on maintenance.

    But I guess I'm totally wrong and my body is totally stupid because I lost >40 pounds, I've been keeping it off for at least six months doing the same crap listed above and not worried about "overdoing" it on days when I want to enjoy food.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    It's funny that you say your body doesn't get confused. you can REALLY mess up your metabolism by overdoing it certain days. been there, done that.
    No.
    Would like to know why you think you "messed up your metabolism" - did you measure if somehow?

    Lost my weight with an uneven eating pattern and maintain my weight with an uneven eating pattern, my metabolism is just fine with no hint of "confusion".
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    If you are the kind of person who sticks to their plans, I would suggest "reverse banking". When I needed to maintain for a while, when I had a particularly high calorie day (I logged it all of course) I took the extras from future days' budget - 100 calories at a time - or exercised the extra away during next week.

    If you know EXACTLY what you will be eating on weekends, banking would be fine. Otherwise you may actually end up with more banked calories than you are prepared to eat. And yes, it does include exercise.. just make sure to count the net burned, not the total. You do that by subtracting what you body burns at rest during exercise duration from what it burned with the exercise.
  • aniazawadzki
    Options
    It's funny that you say your body doesn't get confused. you can REALLY mess up your metabolism by overdoing it certain days. been there, done that.


    You don't even have to eat well. It's all a numbers game at the end of the day. Yesterday, after dinner, my husband and I wanted a beer. We walked thirty minutes to get to a bar we love, ordered a beer, decided to order waffle fries with cheese and a hot dog with cheese and bacon to share and then each ordered a second beer. Then we did the thirty minute walk home. It was delicious and worth it but now I will eat a little less today because I went a little crazy yesterday. Life is good on maintenance.

    Calorie counting is totally a number game. We can eat all the hamburgers and fries we want as long as it's in the range of calories lol I just look at calories none of the cholesterol numbers and other stuff except for iron nd protein nd vitamins lol but that's a lot of numbers to be juggling with lol
  • karmac0matic
    karmac0matic Posts: 285
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    sorry that your body isn't the same as mine but no need to be rude.
  • aniazawadzki
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    So I weighed myself again and gained 2 lbs and I know that I have been keeping within my calorie intake goals, could this be due to water retention?